Bernice Bowling

Family

It had been years since she had visited her childhood home. Now here she is with her son Jimmy, grown standing inside the spooky old house, dusting the cobwebs off as she touched the locket around her neck and made her way to the aged record player her dad had bought her all those years ago. It had a silver disco ball at the top where lights are shown on it when you flipped the switch and turned to make pretty shapes and colors of red, green, blue, and gold all over the walls. Under the disco ball, it had a record player where she could play old records, and on the side of the front, it had an eight-track player. She remembered listening to songs by Glen Cambell, Jackie Wilson, and Marilyn MCcoo, and Billy Davis Jr. She thought those were the most beautiful songs in the world back then. She loved watching the lights all across the room, sitting in the dark listening and dreaming. She was five years old, then playing with her dolls and listening to music. This was when her love for dolls was born. It was the only time in her life she had felt happy and content. Now, as she looked around the house, she wished she could go back to those times when her mother, papaw, and father had been alive. Going a bit further into the house, she came upon some of the dolls she had been looking for, the ones she had loved so much. There was a Baby Beth doll, with her soft body, pink knit hat and slippers, and straight blond hair. Her daddy and bought her that and suffered for it. She heard the stories of how Louise, her biological mother, had jumped onto him for buying her the stereo, and Baby Beth doll. Louise never liked him buying her anything. Bethany was glad she was raised by her grandmother, whom she called mom, and her Grandfather, whom she referred to as papaw.